1748 Presents for the Table 27 



next week the outside element numbered 18 and the 

 subscribers only 8. It is amusing to see how the careful 

 Treasurer took measures to prevent, as far as he could, this 

 inroad of outsiders from depleting the Fund of the Club. 

 A practice was arising among the members to present venison 

 or other viands to the Company, and when this was done 

 the health of the donor was toasted, while at the same time 

 the Treasurer was empowered to pay the gamekeeper's 

 fee, cost of carriage, and other incidental expenses out of 

 Club funds. 



1748. On 4th August 1748 the following resolution 

 was adopted : " The Company having this day been 

 entertained with venison by the Hon. Mr. Yorke, it was 

 agreed nem. con. that his health should be drank in 

 claret, and thanks to him for his present, and four bottles 

 were ordered in accordingly. But as there were many 

 gentlemen present who were not Subscribers it was thought 

 proper to collect the whole reckoning, including the keeper's 

 fee of io/6 and 3/- for carriage, from the company present 

 and not to charge this over-reckoning on the Fund." The 

 Treasurer records on each occasion that the claret ordered 

 was paid for there and then by the company present, so as 

 not to appear in his books as an expenditure from the Club's 

 resources. 



It appears from various allusions in the chronicle that 

 at this time and for long afterwards each visitor paid for 

 his own dinner. He was invited by the President or one 

 of the other members, and during the first few years in the 

 register an indication was inserted in the dinner-register 

 opposite his name that he was a visitor, but without any 

 indication by whom his invitation had been given. As 

 will be seen in the records of later years, it was found 

 desirable to keep a note in the register at whose instance 

 any visitor came to the Club. 



It can be readily understood that unless special precau- 

 tions were taken, some difficulty might be found in pre- 

 venting the ordinary frequenters of a tavern from sometimes 

 straying into the room of the Royal Philosophers, where 



